Windows 7 Vs Windows 8?

Hello

Currently on my laptop I use Windows Vista (I got this laptop in april 2009)

I am working on getting a new PC or laptop. And I was thinking about what windows to use?

I really like how easy Vista is to use, though I suppose I am used to it by now, Some programs I use for simple video editing I dont think are compatible for Windows 8 which is pushing me more towards windows 7

has anybody got and advice on either OS?

Thank you

P.S - Sorry is this is in the wrong section

Windows 8 is frustrating and just too different to 7 in my opinion. I ran it once on my laptop and immediately unintalled it and swapped it for 7 when I saw how annoying the UI was. I use windows 7 Pro 64bit and it has everything I need
(On the plus side... in my experience it has actually been a lot faster than 7 in terms of boot up speed)

Of course the choice of OS is purely down to personal preference.

Personally, although I haven't used it, I would opt for W8 for a completely new build. Along with the changes in 8.1 there are third party things that give you a W7-like experience, and it seems to me that a lot of the new developments relevant to gaming will be optimised for W8. If you don't game then that may not be a consideration for you.
You'll have to let go of things that won't work beyond 7 one day if you don't want to remain in the past (will they really not work even in compatibility mode?).

Spuff said:

Personally, although I haven't used it, I would opt for W8 for a completely new build. Along with the changes in 8.1 there are third party things that give you a W7-like experience, and it seems to me that a lot of the new developments relevant to gaming will be optimised for W8. If you don't game then that may not be a consideration for you.
You'll have to let go of things that won't work beyond 7 one day, if you don't want to remain in the past (will they really not work even in compatibility mode?).

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I'm in complete agreement with Spuff on this. When choosing your OS you need to bear in mind that Windows 7 is a back-level OS now. The only negative aspect of Windows 8/8.1 is the Modern UI, but that's such a tiny part of an otherwise excellent OS. I run Windows 8.1 (with a third-party traditional menu tool) and I wouldn't hesitate to have it installed on a new PC.

Windows 8 or 7 is a matter of personal taste really,some people like Windows8 and others don't,
I for one will be sticking with Windows 7 for as long as possible,I've tried Windows 8 and don't like it one little bit,I can see no improvement whatsoever for a desktop user,apart from booting a few seconds faster which doesn't really matter to me in the least.
It also doesn't come with DVD playback capability (yes,I know about VLC) and it doesn't come with Windows Media Center either (they want you to pay £99.99 for it) I use media center for watcing TV as it's far better than any other software I've tried.Also Windows 8 seems have dropped the excellent backup utility of Windows 7 which I also use,but as I said it's down to ones own preference.

ubuysa said:

When choosing your OS you need to bear in mind that Windows 7 is a back-level OS now.

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I'd have to disagree with that, 7 is still an excellent OS and is still preferred by the majority of Windows users out there, especially those with productivity in mind. The only reason you'll struggle to pick up a copy of 7 these days is because Microsoft strong armed retailers and PC manufacturers into forcing Windows 8 onto people in order to fudge their God-awful sales figures. They're also pushing newer DirectX releases to only be compatible with Windows 8 in the hope that more people will jump over to it. Let's not forget that Windows 8 was largely rejected by the consumer and, at this time last year, was still only the fourth most used OS out there, even behind XP.
Microsoft were way too late and mile wide of the mark with their touch screen (yeah, let's try working with Photoshop with our fingers!) and mobile device hook up friendly OS, and it was rushed out in order to compete with Apple/Android. But it was poorly thought out and very badly executed, as was Microsoft's reaction to it bombing. The whole package was so bad it cost Steve Balmer his job.

At the end of the day some people will prefer 8, (I personally have no time for it and its useless UI) and more power to them. But 7 is still a fantastic OS and has only suffered because Microsoft abandoned it to push their failure onto consumers.

Windows 8 is quicker booting but is worse off when it comes to productivity (getting to everything is slower to get to such as control panel), it's bearable if you install a start bar app, which i've done on my parents computer. I prefer windows 7 because it's easier to navigate.

At the end of the day it's a personal preference. Get a trial of both and see if you like it.

I don't like the direction MS went with Windows 8 as like most people I don't think by trying to do everything, it works as well as well as a UI built for a mouse and keyboard and a UI built for touch.

HOWEVER 8.1 fixed a lot of the problems - even though most of the mouse and keyboard friendly options aren't enabled by default, it doesn't take long to turn them on and get it booting to the desktop again. If you want to you can ignore metro completely. There was an update to 8.1 recently which improves it further, metro apps can now be run on the desktop with the traditional desktop UI and pinned to the taskbar, which actually makes a few of them relevant on a non-touch device (like those that lack a dedicated desktop app, such as Netflix).

If that's not enough and you want the classic start menu free apps such as Classic Shell will do this for free. There's a new hotkey to search from the desktop though, and you can set the Metro start menu to display all desktop apps by default if you want - so it kind of makes the old start menu redundant anyway. Do you really need it when there's another way to search and a taskbar to pin apps to?

Most important though it boots faster, performs faster, runs better on low end or older hardware, has improved native management apps (like the vastly improved task manager). All of the old management tools such as the desktop style control panel are easily accessible by right clicking the start icon on the desktop (yes this could be done more elegantly, it feels a bit like an afterthought). Sooner or later, 7 will stop being supported. Knowing MS this will be sooner rather than later if they're going to stay the course with this project, which it looks like they are.

Sure it could be better but many of the (valid) early criticisms have been addressed now. Personally I couldn't go back to 7.

This is the thing for me, why buy an OS then make it 'act' like 7 when I already have 7? It may not take long to do all those things you mentioned mate but I bet I wouldn't be able to figure it all out within half an hour. I don't see the point in hiding the Metro UI either, why have something you're never going to use? And I really don't like the thought of adding three party software to get a feature you want.

7 will be supported until 2020 so I'm good for another few years yet, and I've heard M$ will be heading back towards 7 with Windows 9 so I'll see how that is when it's released.

is startisbackalready built into windows 8?

or is it a 3rd party program?

Thank you

I think it's part of 8.1.1 but you'd have to get that confirmed.

eddywatson said:

is startisbackalready built into windows 8?

or is it a 3rd party program?

Thank you

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It's called startisback.
http://startisback.com/

It's third party.
Microsoft will be adding a start menu, but it hasn't happened yet.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/02/microsoft-will-soon-bring-back-the-start-menu-in-windows-8-1/

I know this by means of searching the internet.

Boozad said:

This is the thing for me, why buy an OS then make it 'act' like 7 when I already have 7? It may not take long to do all those things you mentioned mate but I bet I wouldn't be able to figure it all out within half an hour. I don't see the point in hiding the Metro UI either, why have something you're never going to use? And I really don't like the thought of adding three party software to get a feature you want.

7 will be supported until 2020 so I'm good for another few years yet, and I've heard M$ will be heading back towards 7 with Windows 9 so I'll see how that is when it's released.

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I see what you mean. Most the the tweaks are buried in sub menus, it's almost like Microsoft would rather you didn't know about them. Definitely not the right approach.

I really disliked 8 until 8.1 came out, and you're right, third party addons shouldn't be necessary in the first place. Even though I'm satisfied without addons now it's clear loads of people aren't.

The Metro apps are occasionally useful, since 8.1.1, but why they don't have an option on first boot that just lets you choose the experience you want, classic or touch, I don't know.

Hopefully the stuff about the start menu tweaks and Windows 9 is all going to happen.

so if I get windows 8.1 and I pay to download startisback do I just install it and it auto adds the start button to the bottom task bar?

Thank you

Windows 8 is such a drastic change i struggle to help my dad do stuff in his laptop. It's nothing like any other windows I've used and I don't like it In The slightest. In fact he ends up helping me and showing me stuff when I am suppose to be helping him lol.

get windows 7 definately, if you are advanced user get the pro version, it comes with group policy enabled.
win 8 on the other hand is a joke, metro, ugly looking square menus, no aero, stupid "cloud" integration and other nonsense.

Subtle hint: I actually know a couple of Microsoft employees and even they won't touch Windows 8/8.1 unless they really have to.

Boozad said:

and I've heard M$ will be heading back towards 7 with Windows 9 .

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Yes that it is what was on the cards on the last road map I saw, 9 is supposed to be an updated 7 with optional metro support.

Androcles said:

Yes that it is what was on the cards on the last road map I saw, 9 is supposed to be an updated 7 with optional metro support.

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Learning from their mistakes at last? Let's hope so...

The thing that stands out is the compatiblity issue - if you have software that isn't compatible with 8, then you've no choice but to stick with 7. Though which software is this? It seems curious that this is the case, especially 18 months after release...

Regarding differences between 7 and 8, the main one that can't be avoided is the start menu - some people like it, some people don't. Windows 8.1 and 8.1 Update 1 have tweaked and improved a lot of the things that people didn't like. Other things (like the new full screen "Modern UI" Windows Store applications) can be ignored if you don't like them (though with 8.1 Update 1, they work just fine with mouse/keyboard too).

Free utilities are available to make the start menu behave like Windows 7, if you don't like it. Existing Windows applications continue to work and look just the same as before (well, there's a slightly different style - Aero is gone). Personally I hated Windows XP's start menu as well as various other changes from 2000, but I didn't say how XP was a total failure or doomed or claim everyone hated it, I just switched/tweaked things back to how I liked them.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8 for new features.

Things I like include:
* Faster boot times (my Vortex 3 went from about 23s to 13s).
* Wifi networks can be marked as "metered" connections (so if I'm tethered to my mobile phone, it knows to be careful).
* At last I can pause file copy operations.
* Improved task manager.
* Email login makes it easier to share preferences between multiple PCs.
* Better OneDrive integration (e.g., files can now be online-links).
* Less being pestered about updates (and installing them on startup rather than shutdown seems better).
* Anti-virus included as standard.
* Full disk encryption as standard.
* Ability to mount ISOs without needing 3rd party software.
* Native USB 3 support.
* Windows 8 is better off when it comes to productivity, as things are faster to get to (just pin them to the start screen - means you don't have to clutter the desktop with icons, and there's more space than the taskbar). It seems sensible for me that if I've paid for a 17" laptop, to actually make use of that space, rather than only utilising a small space (originally with Windows 95, the idea of the start menu was that it was a cascading menu - sub-menus opened up across the screen. But at some point this was changed into an annoying small scrolling list window).

Someone mentioned dropping DVD support - I believe this was for patent reasons, and it seems sensible to me to save consumers money, when they can instead get the same functionality by installing a free player themselves.

Let's not forget that Windows 8 was largely rejected by the consumer and, at this time last year, was still only the fourth most used OS out there, even behind XP. ... The only reason you'll struggle to pick up a copy of 7 these days is because Microsoft strong armed retailers and PC manufacturers into forcing Windows 8 onto people in order to fudge their God-awful sales figures. ... as was Microsoft's reaction to it bombing

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100 million in 6 months isn't what I'd call rejected, God-awful or bombing!

Your statistic compares installed userbase - so this time last year, you were comparing a few months of Windows 8 sales, to several years of 7, and several more years of XP! With typical PC upgrade cycles of many years, it takes a long time for a new version of an OS to rise in terms of installed userbase. Most of the time comparisons are done based on sales, not installed userbase.

Even on Android phones where people typically upgrade far more quickly, and OS updates are pushed out for free, it takes a while for a new version to get anywhere significant in terms of installed userbase.

Yes, you can only easily buy PCs with the latest version, but this is standard. I don't see PCS selling older versions of their laptops, or Samsung offering an Android 4.1 version of their S5

I don't see any evidence that MS forced manufacturers into doing anything? Nor do I see Windows 8 being forced onto people.

Microsoft were way too late and mile wide of the mark with their touch screen (yeah, let's try working with Photoshop with our fingers!)

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I think that's what Apple did (isn't there a Photoshop for ipad now?) On a Windows 8 device though, you can carry on using Photoshop with your keyboard/mouse/touchpad (unlike an ipad).

Maybe it would have been better to wait a year - 8.1 brings refinement, not to mention that Intel's Haswell and Bay Trail bring great battery and performance improvements for convertible/tablet PCs. But that's all history now. We are here today with 8.1 Update 1.

Subtle hint: I actually know a couple of Microsoft employees and even they won't touch Windows 8/8.1 unless they really have to.

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I'm not sure how this says anything, other than that employees are individuals rather than corporate drones. I'm sure there exists at least one Apple employee with an Android phone too.

And Windows 8 could already be described as "updated 7 with optional metro support"... (Unless by optional you mean that it'll only support Win32, and WinRT stuff won't run at all unless it's enabled, but I haven't heard anything about that. What might be more likely is that WinRT is expanded to include coverage of windowed UIs too.)